“There is no must in art because art is free” – Wassily Kandinsky, a Russian artist who is credited with being a pioneer of abstract art. Many art students at Hackley have embraced this notion of freedom through their own artwork, one such student being Senior Sophie Miller. Sophie loves to explore, whether that be through academic courses or artwork. She enjoys expressing herself through her pieces, which enable viewers to get a glimpse into the creative mind behind them. 

Sophie has been interested in art since a young age. She described herself as,“the kid who would sit down with crayons and color for hours and hours on end”, and plans on continuing her art education in college as well. Sophie explained that she is not an artist in “the classical sense”-  a student who dedicates all of their time to developing skills in artwork and one who plans on pursuing it as a career – but feels a connection to the freedom it offers. 

Sophie feels that her current AP art course gives her a new experience while working in art. In the past, she has completed several large pieces, which took a significant amount of time. In contrast, pieces for her AP class are smaller and demand a shorter turnaround time. Due to the fast-paced nature of the class, Sophie feels that she is gaining an immense amount of knowledge and is now able to quickly identify her likes and dislikes regarding composition and technique. It also forces her not to dwell on each piece for too long and rather look ahead and see what she could improve in the future. 

Gallery • 5 Photos

Credit: Sophie Miller

Sophie uses the grid format to sketch out the person and she sets a base layer.

Sophie’s current project depicts a storm with a person in the foreground. She has always been attracted to the idea of doing something “wacky” and quickly decided to draw storms as it gives her some artistic freedom with the movement of the sky and lightning. 

Chalk pastels are Sophie’s medium of choice as she loves their messy nature. For the storm aspect, Sophie takes images of storms off the internet and then alters the positioning and colors according to her liking. As for the human component, Sophie photographs her friends in strange lighting and experiments with camera angles to get the perfect picture. She then combines the two and grids the paper so that she can accurately depict her vision. It is a labor-intensive process, however, seeing her vision come to life gives her a great deal of motivation.

Though art may not be Sophie’s first choice as a career path in the future, she feels that it is an integral part of who she is as a person and wants to continue with it in the coming years.